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Forbes plans a show and documentary about the bitcoin laundering scandal
Forbes is making two projects around the bitcoin money laundering couple.
FBI could use dead suspects' fingerprints to open iPhones
Having been denied by Apple, despite having a court order, the Federal Bureau of Investigations is quickly running out of options in its efforts to unlock one of the San Bernardino shooter's cell phones. They can't brute force the phone open for fear of the device wiping its data if they guess the wrong passcode too many times and many commercially available hacking tools require the phone already be unlocked. While the FBI is hamstrung in this specific investigation, the solution for similar cases in the future might instead lie with a mobile device's fingerprint reader.
FAA confirms that drone registry info will be public record
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed Friday afternoon that information logged in its fledgling UAV registry will be searchable by the general public -- just not initially. In an email to Forbes, an FAA spokesperson stated, "Until the drone registry system is modified, the FAA will not release names and address. When the drone registry system is modified to permit public searches of registration numbers, names and addresses will be revealed through those searches."
Thanks to Apple, Dr. Dre had the most profitable year of any musician in history
Dr. Dre has had a very good year. This week Forbes magazine released its rankings of the world's highest paid musicians, and the good Doctor took the number one spot by half a billion dollars more than the second place earner. The number two spot went to Beyonce with $115 million. So how much exactly did Dr. Dre earn? Thanks to Apple's $3 billion purchase of Beats in May, Dr. Dre took home $620 million before taxes. This not only makes him the most profitable musician in the world for 2014, but it also earns him the distinction of earning more money in one year than any other musical artist in history. Dr. Dre less than subtly hinted at the Beats sale right before it was confirmed in an exuberant party video with Fast and Furious star Tyrese Gibson. You can find that story right here. Dr. Dre released his last album, titled 2001 on November 16, 1999. It sold 7.6 million copies in the United States.
Apple ranked the most valuable brand on the planet by Forbes
It's been a good week for Apple. On the heels of news that rival Samsung has seen its mobile business nosedive by 74%, the company has been named the number one most valuable brand on the planet by Forbes. Apple was able to grab the top spot on Forbes' list by moving large numbers of product while simultaneously charging a premium price for their wares. From the article: When it comes to charging a premium price and moving product, no one does it better than Apple. There are other phones and tablets that are functionally comparable or arguably better than the iPhone and iPad, but the Apple brand carries tremendous weight and credibility, and customers are willing to pay up for that. The company sold 39.3 million iPhones in its latest quarter and could sell as many as 60 million during the last three months of 2014 with the holiday selling season. Apple also moved 12.3 million iPads and 5.5 million Macs last quarter. Apple's value is up 19% over last year and, thanks to excitement over the coming Apple Watch in 2015, expectations are high for next year. In total ,Apple's brand is currently work $124.2 billion. In the second and third place spots are Microsoft and Google, respectively. Microsoft saw an 11% increase in value this year as its investments in cloud services have paid off, along with lucrative deals with organizations like the NFL. Google meanwhile increased its value thanks to its powerful advertising business. You can read Forbes' complete report here.
Apple isn't going to abandon the 3.5mm headphone jack
There's been some wild speculation by a certain business journal lately that Apple might abandon the standard 3.5mm headphone jack and replace it with Lightning connector headphones that would allow for 48kHz digital sound for the first time. Before we get started lets make one thing abundantly clear; we'd love to own a pair of 48 kHz digital headphones that would allow for lossless audio quality from the comfort of our phones. That being said, anyone who thinks that Apple would completely abandon the standard headphone jack is completely out of his mind. Here's a list of people who would be furious if Apple took away the ability to use standard headphones from all users: Anyone who already bought $100 to $300 headphones which now don't work with their iPhone, including everyone who already owns a pair of BEATS Anyone who now has to pay for a $29 3.5mm headphone jack adapter to use their existing headphones Anyone who just spent $700 on a phone that requires them to have special headphones they can't easily replace Anyone who listens to their iPhone while jogging and goes through multiple pairs of headphones because they sweat a lot Anyone who uses their iPhone for music in the car, but has one of those tape deck to 3.5mm headphone jack solutions Anyone who has an FM transmitter that uses a 3.5mm headphone jack Anyone who forgot their headphones before going to the airport and now has to buy an expensive set of proprietary Apple headphones for their new phone instead of the already overpriced generic earbuds at the airport store Anyone who wants to let someone listen to music on their iPhone but doesn't want to share earbuds Anyone who connects to their home stereo using an 3.5mm auxiliary plugin who can now no longer listen to Spotify on their stereo without buying an adaptor Apple just spent billions of dollars buying a headphone manufacturer. Their next logical step will be to set fire to that headphone manufacturer's customer base by rendering their already overpriced headphones obsolete, right? Headphones aren't chargers. Chargers have one purpose for existing, so we put up with the fact that they are often annoying and proprietary. Your 3.5mm jack and headphones interface with far more objects. You use the standard headphone jack for listening to music while walking, in the car, and at home, all in slightly different ways. You use headphones with different products. Everyone who travels with a portable gaming system or non-Apple laptop would suddenly have a reason not to buy an iPhone, because it would mean having to carry around an extra set of headphones in addition to the ones for your phone. For the casual user -- say your uncle who shrugs at Thanksgiving dinner and says "who cares what kind of phone you have? -- this would be the sort of thing that would drive them towards Android. The Forbes article that inspired this rant lays out what it calls a "very simple and effective roll out trajectory." Here it is: 1. Announce the technology with Beats and headphone partners 2. Unveil clever third party app integration 3. Make this integration inaccessible in any other way 4. Make Lightning port to 3.5mm headphone jack adaptors expensive and bulky 5. In a few years remove the 3.5mm headphone jack from Apple devices citing legacy, greater design flexibility and extra space for a bigger battery This would be effective with the most diehard Apple fans in the world. Everyone else would say "yeah, I'm not paying $29.99 for a headphone jack adaptor I'm probably going to lose while traveling," and then just buy the newest Android smartphone instead. I fail to see where Apple gains ground by making a move that's sure to turn so many existing customers away from their most popular product. If Apple can make Lightning port headphones that provide users with crystal clear digital sound they should. There's certainly a group of customers out there who would want to buy them and would probably pay a premium to do so. Those customers are an outlier. People buy Apple products because, and pardon the cliché, they just work. To force people to buy new headphones for a feature that isn't that important to the general public is removing one of the basic functionalities of every smartphone in the world. If you aren't already an Apple loyalist, what possible reason would you have for sticking with iOS when cheaper, similarly powered, alternatives already exist that work with the headphones you already have? Building better headphones and letting people discover that they want them is a perfectly smart move for Apple to make, but abandoning the headphone jack completely? No way. Apple is in the business of selling hardware. It's a lot harder to sell a phone when one of the most universal features of every other device on the market has been stripped out in a transparent move to force users into a more expensive product. That would be stupid, and Apple isn't stupid, folks.
Forbes says AAPL is down 85%, isn't quite sure how stock splits work
You'd think that an outlet that specialized in financial news would have a pretty good handle on the workings of Wall Street. You'd think that but you'd be wrong, at least in the case of Forbes, which is noting via its inline stock tracking widget that AAPL is down a shocking 85% today by dropping over $551 per share as of this writing. OMG! Of course, there's nothing to fear here, as Apple's stock price is simply a result of the 7-for-1 stock split that went into effect today. The vast majority of financial outlets and their slick stock tools handle this change in the correct manner, which is to split the stock price retroactively so that the current value is reflected correctly. But not Forbes. Because Forbes.
One million Forbes accounts reportedly stolen in Syrian Electronic Army hack
Having already targeted several big name news organizations, the Syrian Electronic Army has hit another, this time publishing a reported one million user credentials from business site Forbes.com. Re/code reports that the group posted various messages to its Twitter account claiming responsibility for the attack, sharing a screenshot of the site's publishing system and indicating it accessed a Forbes employee's accounts in order to do so. Forbes, meanwhile, has confirmed the compromise, prompting users to change their passwords and be on their guard for a potential increase in targeted phishing attacks. While passwords were hashed (not stored in plain text), they may not be safe from enterprising third parties. The site has since returned to normal, but the company says it's in contact with law enforcement to identify exactly what happened. Between this and the recent Kickstarter hack, it's been a lousy few days for database administrators.
Forbes: ESO's subscription model is just 'a compounding factor' to risk
Forbes is firing back at Pathfinder Online CEO Ryan Dancey, rebutting his faith in the subscription model by observing, "The general, obvious trend is that games are moving to microtransactions or optional subscriptions at best." Forbes contributor Paul Tassi casts doubt on the subscription chart estimates provided by Dancey, saying that they leave out costs and other factors and are mere guesses to boot. The article points out that virtually all newer MMOs have either launched with a hybrid or mictrotransaction model or have moved to free-to-play in recent years. "With rumors of a massive budget, indicators that the game itself isn't anything phenomenal, and the insistence of the subscription model across all platforms, I stand by my assertion that Elder Scrolls Online has the potential to be a huge miss for ZeniMax and Bethesda," the article concludes. "Honestly, even a free-to-play ESO would have seemed incredibly risky by itself, and the subscription fee is just a compounding factor."
MMO Family: Forbes' three essential parenting tips on video games
As video games continue to grow in popularity each year, there is a correlating increase in the number of studies and advice columns offering insight into how parents should tackle the many parenting issues that go with it. Sadly, far too many of the "experts" who offer advice have little or no real experience playing video games, and their advice is shaped by an overall negative view of video games. But as Forbes blogger Jordan Shapiro points out in his article 3 Things Parents Should Know About Video Games and Kids, video games and the internet are here to stay. And it's unrealistic to look at the issues of raising a child in the age of technology strictly in black and white terms. Shapiro offers up the three pieces of advice that are great starting points for parents, and we'll take a look at them in this week's MMO Family.
Microsoft wants you to buy their products, to start offering cash for iPhones
Earlier in the month, Microsoft -- which would love for you to pick up one of its new second-generation Surface 2 tablets -- began offering iPad owners a paltry US$200 or more for a trade-in in hopes that you'd actually fall for the ploy, grab the cash and buy one of their beleaguered tablets. Now Forbes is reporting that Microsoft will be offering you a minimum of $200 for your iPhone 4s or iPhone 5 at some of the US and Canadian Microsoft Stores. In this case, the trade-in promotion is part of the #timetoswitch campaign, and Microsoft is hoping that you'll ditch your nice and relatively new iPhone for a Windows Phone instead of an iPhone 5s or 5c. Not that Microsoft seems desperate or anything, but they also have an online campaign that started a few weeks ago where they'll take any Apple, Android or BlackBerry device in return for a Visa gift card. I wonder how much they'll give me for that third-generation iPod classic that's sitting on the shelf... Forbes' Kelly Clay said it best: "Apple's impressive sales figures of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in the past few days mean millions of consumers are not only freshly tied into new contracts but overtly prefer the iOS platform over Windows as they waited to purchase the new line of iPhones -- and avoided purchasing a Windows Phone when they had the chance." It's beginning to look like Microsoft's business strategy for the near future is to become the leading vendor of used smartphones and tablets.
Daily Update for August 15, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple falls on Forbes list of innovative companies
Since 2011, Forbes has issued the Most Innovative Companies List, ranking the top 100 of what it considers to be the companies that benefit both from existing innovations and what's anticipated to happen in the future. In 2011, Apple was in the No. 5 spot. Last year, the company fell to No. 26. This year, Forbes ranked the company at No. 79. This ranking follows criticism of Apple in the press for not introducing completely new product categories every few years. In 2007, the company jump-started the smartphone revolution with the iPhone; in 2010, it did it again with the iPad. Bruce Upbin of Forbes was quoted as saying, "Apple's already done so much. What could they do that would top the iPhone and iPad?" Google also fell in the rankings, from No. 7 in 2011 to No. 24 last year and down to No. 47 in 2013. Who topped the list? Salesforce.com, which has been in the No. 1 spot for three years. Apple shouldn't feel too bad; Microsoft and Intel, which both spend incredible amounts of money on research and development, have never made the Forbes list.
PGP inventor doesn't use PGP "because it doesn't run well on a Mac"
Phil Zimmermann is a legend in the world of online privacy, having invented PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) in 1991 to create a way of creating cryptographic privacy and authentication to keep digital communications -- and entire computers -- safe from prying eyes. Zimmermann was in the news last Friday when a company he founded -- Silent Circle -- decided to shut down and delete all email messages on its servers rather than have the US government force them to hand over customer data. One fascinating item in the Forbes article about the Silent Circle email shutdown was Zimmermann's admission that he doesn't use email much anymore because "PGP doesn't run very well on a Mac these days." PGP Corporation was purchased by software giant Symantec in 2010 for US$300 million, and according to Mac user Zimmermann, "Symantec hasn't kept that up. So I hardly ever run PGP." In lieu of email, Zimmermann says that he uses Silent Circle's mobile texting service and iOS app Silent Text instead. Forbes' Parmy Olson asked Zimmermann if he expected more people to move from using email to more secure mobile messaging systems. In his reply, Zimmermann noted, "Mobile messaging is less clunky than email. Email has its place. Sometimes you want to have an audit trail of business communication. Sometimes that's a feature rather than a liability. So email is not going to go away, but if you want to send secure messages, there are more streamlined ways to do it now." A CNET article earlier this year noted that the US Drug Enforcement Administration is unhappy with Apple's iMessage encryption, saying that that "It is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices" even with a court order approved by a federal judge. The moral of the story? If you want to keep prying eyes from your personal communications, start shifting away from email and use encrypted messaging instead.
Ingenious Dutch research center boasts one patent created 'every 20 minutes'
The city responsible for the first solar-powered family car and a building shaped like a UFO is no stranger to creativity. Eindhoven, Netherlands was recently named "most inventive city" by Forbes magazine, probably thanks to the High Tech Campus (HTC) research and development center located there. The HTC is the result of the Dutch government's initiative to bolster high-tech innovation in the region after rounds of layoffs from companies like Philips. Scads of tech firms are holed up within HTC's walls including IBM, Intel and Accenture, with a focus on open cooperation and sharing of ideas and resources. Apparently, this has paid off in spades. According to the HTC's website, the campus is responsible for roughly 50 percent of the Netherlands' almost 10,000 patents each year. Yowza. [Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons]
MMO Family: The many ways video games teach children
Video games get a bad rap these days, but we've looked at several ways that they do redeem themselves. One area in particular is games-based learning, and there are some great games that are helping bring about a revolution in how we look at education. But there are some more subtle ways that video games are teaching our children, too, and Forbes Contributing Editor Jordan Shapiro has put together a list of five types of learning through video games, regardless of whether a child is playing a serious game or is just putzing around. Let's look at the "other" side of learning through gaming, and see how it's perfectly tailored towards kid-friendly MMO experiences.
Hospital calculates return on iPad investment at nine days
If you've been around the medical profession, you have probably seen an explosion of iPads. Doctors I've talked to say they are easy to carry around, and the iPad mini in particular seems a great fit for pockets. Meanwhile, companies that write software for medical uses are quickly creating apps that are iPad-friendly. Meanwhile, Forbes writer Dan Munro has an interesting piece telling the story of a hospital that deployed iPads and saw a return on investment in nine days. The numbers were based on time and motion studies and how clinical workflow impacted labor costs. That pretty much makes an iPad a no-brainer. With healthcare costs soaring and hospitals looking to cut costs, the iPad is making a difference. To have case-management information or drug-interaction data within a few inches of a medical professional moving around a facility is a quiet revolution. The Forbes article isn't specific about the hospital or the uses the iPads were put to, but a lot of iPads are in use in the medical field. The hospital in question is rolling out more iPads, anxious to see more savings. Apple itself has featured medical facilities and companies using iPads and the business case can be compelling. Apple was lucky to see this trend early and take advantage of it. Meanwhile, Microsoft is struggling with tablets that have been slow to catch on.
Magazine slips in a free T-Mobile WiFi hotspot, courtesy of Microsoft (video)
Microsoft has tried more than a few publicity stunts to get us using Office 365, including WiFi hotspots in UK park benches. A magazine with a hotspot, however, is fresh -- and might just get us to notice the ads we normally skip. Americans who've received a special issue of Forbes have flipped past the articles to discover a fully functional (if stripped down) T-Mobile router tucked into a cardboard insert. Once activated, it dishes out 15 days of free WiFi for up to five devices at once, at up to three hours per charge. Microsoft is naturally hoping that we'll see the value of always being in the cloud and pony up for an Office 365 subscription, but we're sure that many will just relish having an access point while they're reading on the train home -- it sure beats settling for a Twitter feed. [Thanks, Britton]
Evasi0n used to jailbreak 7 million devices in less than a week
Forbes talked to Jay Freeman, aka Saurik, who confirmed that the recent Evasi0n jailbreak is the most popular jailbreak in iOS history. According to Saurik, the utility was used to jailbreak more than 7 million devices in the four days since it was released earlier this week. Freeman claims his Cydia jailbreak marketplace has been visited by an insane amount of traffic that includes 5.15 million iPhones, 1.35 million iPads and 400,000 iPod touches. iOS owners who used the Evasi0n tool can attest to this incredible amount of traffic as many could not connect to Cydia in the hours following the release of the jailbreak. You can read more about the iOS 6 jailbreak and its rapid adoption rate in the original article on Forbes.
Al Gore buys lots of AAPL
Al Gore is not afraid of all the doom and gloom surrounding Apple. According to Forbes, the politician/environmentalist just spent US$440,000 to buy 59,000 shares of Apple stock. Of course, he exercised stock options that he received for serving on Apple's Board of Directors and bought the stocks at a very, very reasonable $7.475 per share. Based on Apple's closing stock price as of Thursday afternoon, that purchase is worth a cool $30 million.
